Martha Stewart's Chef Prep Tip To Boost Chicken Crispiness

A chef-approved chicken is one that's moist on the inside and crispy, golden brown on the outside. If you've always struggled with the latter part of that equation, you may want to take Martha Stewart's straightforward tip into consideration. As she told Tasting Table in an exclusive interview, it's absolutely crucial to dry the chicken prior to roasting — "it makes a huge difference," says Stewart.

It takes just a minute or two and requires no extra ingredients. All you need are paper towels to pat dry every square inch of the chicken, both the exterior and as much as you can manage inside the cavity if you plan to roast the entire chicken. For best results, you can leave the chicken overnight in the refrigerator to allow even more moisture to evaporate, as the chefs at Stewart's Las Vegas restaurant do.

The science behind this tip is simple. That chicken you're going to roast is covered in moisture. If you pop it in the oven as it is, all the moisture will evaporate in the heat and essentially cause the chicken skin to steam, instead of sear. While this won't hurt the meat, you won't get crisp skin. Once the oven's heat gets to work on a dry surface, though, all that delicious browning courtesy of the Maillard reaction – the process by which food molecules break down in high heat and create new flavors — will start to take place.

Once you've thoroughly patted your chicken dry and built in time to let it rest in the refrigerator, there are still a few more steps to take for optimal results. First, try rubbing your chicken with a mixture of salt and baking powder before putting it in the refrigerator. The baking powder is a secret ingredient for crispy chicken skin, as it helps dehydrate the skin and, due to its alkaline nature, prompts the Maillard reaction to begin much more quickly. The salt acts as a dry brine (the approach we swear by for dry-brined "evergreen" roast turkey), which keeps the chicken meat itself moist and flavorful. After all, you don't want that perfectly crisp skin to be accompanied by a bone-dry interior.

You may also want to rethink your fat of choice. Butter definitely adds wonderful flavor and can help with browning (it's also what Martha Stewart uses), but if crispness is your biggest goal, consider swapping it for vegetable oil. Butter contains a certain percentage of water, which oil doesn't, so you'll get to that crisping stage quicker. 

Finally, since juices or added ingredients like butter can collect underneath the chicken while roasting, try elevating it on a wire rack so that the oven's heat can circulate around the chicken, hitting every inch of the bird. Don't have a rack? Place your chicken atop a bed of vegetables for a similar approach (with the bonus of being an easy one-pan meal).

Static Media owns and operates Mashed and Tasting Table.